i have periodic AF and on pill in pocket bisoprolol but i take half of a small one daily which keeps the attacks at bay, Blood thinners, Statins lansoprosole. Now as i am getting breathless saw my GP and he is more or less sure he says i have angina too (but not diagnosed by cardio as yet) he has put me onto Nicorandil 10 mg twice a day, but after taking one, the headache was monumental, that now just half tablet at nights, Since taking these, i feel even worse. one has to listen to our GPs, but cant help wondering if they should prescribe until conditiona are confirmed by a cardiologist.
He has written to hospital for Angiograms and other things to be done, heaven knows how long that takes with todays NHS.
Has anyone else with AF taken Nicorndil too or has had possible diagnoisis of Angina aswell. I should add i have had no chest pains, just an awful tightness around bottom of neck where it meets the body, but GP told me that Angina in women presents with different pain than for men which theirs is always in their chests.
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Hi, the only thing similar I get is like something is wrapped around my throat, bottom of neck at the front, I take lansaprazole for it, started getting it after I was prescribed aspirin and bisoprolol. Had my lansaprazole doubled by my gp to 30mg twice a day, as thought to have been my GORD (gastro - oesophal reflux disease). I've been told by the cardiac rehab team to contact gp to get another referral to a different cardiologist as the one they had referred me to back in September had now gone away?
If you are a sufferer of reflux disease (mine has been mostly under control since I started on PPIs over15 years ago), there are a number of things you can do which will help your situation if you are not aware of them. I group them into diet and physical. Diet includes foods that aggravate by bloating (e.g onions), acidity (e.g citrus), those that relax the sphincter at the end of the oesophagus (e.g. coffee and chocolate), irritants (alcohol and spicy food), and perhaps a lot of meat at a sitting which remains in the stomach for longer. You might also find you have trigger foods which cause you problems for a few days so perhaps keep a food diary to help identify what they are so you can avoid them in future. And then physical includes not eating large meals so you don't bloat and send food back into the oesophagus, chewing food properly so it clears the stomach quickly, not bending over if avoidable which compresses the abdomen, not having food at least three hours before going to bed, and avoiding sleeping on the right side since the inlet to the stomach is on the right and gravity will help food escape back into the oesophagus. And if you do have a relapse go back to a very bland diet for as long as it takes for your body to heal and recover which could be a week or even longer. Finally are you on enteric coated aspirin since that will be less of an stomach irritant compared to dispersible, that's what I take. Hope this is useful
Thank you so much Lowerfield_no_more, I will try as you have suggested, I remember you provided with advice once before too which was very helpful and thank you for that also. Hope you are keeping well
(Ps yes I am taking the Enteric coated aspirin 75mg, clopidogrel 75mg and bisoprolol 1.25mg, Atorvastatin 80mg
I only started getting the symptoms after being prescribed these medications.)
Very interesting to read, as seeems slihtly like i have, its the tight feeling which is mainly to the front as low down as can be in neck and around the sides, it makes me feel i cant breathe so i draw breaths in which drags the neck skin making the corotids expose a lot. My Gp knows i have GERD and on 30mg lansoprozole, but he went straight to Angina and the Nicorandil and GTN spray. Of course i wont know for sure until manage to see cardio at hospital, the one i am under at the moment there is an 'electrics' man my GP said for the AF and i need one that deals more with the mechanism of heart. So for now i suffer the headaches on Nicorandil. but thank you very much for your inorfmative reply, i am hoping mine too is the Reflux syndrome.
Is the electric man an EP (electrophysicist)? I've seen them mentioned many times here.I have the angina in arms, shoulders centre of upper back through chest at times and chest rarely. It's been trial and error with gtn spray to see what it works for and not. I'm mainly right sided pain when it happens, but until I see a cardiologist Vascular specialist I kind of still don't know.
But yes I also get where I have to take a deep breath too, but not so much as for the carotid arteries to show. Also I find when I have taken the gtn it helps with the need for having to take that deep intake of air. It's confusing but now I just kinda got used to it I guess. Whilst your waiting perhaps discuss with your gp if its a possibility that reflux could be adding to it?
Thankyou for that, yes i tried to ask gp about my reflux adding to this but he sort of dismissed it, but i get it badly. As you say until seeing a proper Cardio, we are all just hanging, it can be a little frightening at times with the breathlessness though but i try not to panic.
I understand how you feel.May I ask if you also have an inhaler eg salbutamol! Ventolin? Or have been checked for copd or asthma? I also have a ventolin inhaler, the breathless I get isn't relieved by it though if feels different than asthma does.
No no inhalers, my husband has late stage COPD and h.failure so i see first hand COPD. My GP tells me when i asked about my own breathlessness could it be this, or asthma, and he said no, my lungs sound clear, and that in his opinion heart related, all this the AF and now suspected Angina (to be verified), only began a year ago, until then perfect health and i am 76 now but never felt my age before. I hate this getting older lark, but as they say, dont much fancy the alternative 😀
Bless you, it's a shock and a worry when it happens out of the blue like that, a worry at any time. I only asked about the inhalers as I used to have asthma when I was 17, then a couple of years ago an asthma nurse said I no longer had it and inhaler was stopped. Then in September of 2022 a full chest and abdominal CT showed I had emphysema! Back on inhaler after that but quite luckily it doesn't seem to effect me as expected. Instead it's the heart one.
I too have had the same symptoms recently, I had HA in July last year and was worried it’s was my heart. My GP checked for chest infection and sent me fir chest X-ray but all came back clear. It’s strange isn’t it that different GP come up with different ideas although I had just got over covid and still had a cough from an awful cold I had in November, we therefore out it down to inflammation in my lungs due to covid. Mine has improved slightly but it was really scary and I am still keeping an eye on things.
My angina has never been in my chest. Jaw, neck, stomach or between shoulder blades is where mine begins. Have had 2 stents and am on the usual concoction of drugs. I am already on isosorbide mononitrate 60mg which initially gives awful headache just like when you take GTN spray. Angina increased so was also put on Nicorandil which works in the same way. Your body will become used to it so don't give up.
Thank you for yhour reply, i am assuming you are a woman, asmy GP told me womens symptoms of anything to do with heart, are usually not in chest, but into the back and in the case of Angina can be neck too. Its just a shame we cant get more urgent appts. with hospitals, my GP is really good, but as he told me he isnt a Cardiologist. so meanwhile i am taking the low dose of Nicorandil as the whole 10 mg tablet gave me the worst migraine i have ever had for 2 days. But thankyou for your reply.
Yes I have issues with getting old, doing less (I used to be so active and fit) and now sleepy most of the mornings - on Bisoprolol 1.25 and blood thinner but very sensitive to side effects. I am always concerned about hearing that people are on multiple drugs - they are bound to interact - and when you eventually see a cardiologist I would recommend asking if he/she could cut down on some of the meds. you are taking. I have quite high chloresterol tho' my diet is exemplary and I will not take statins. One element could be making soups and stews with coconut milk which I have now stopped. I am in the early days of seeing if I can control it with diet - Benecol spread 10gms 3 times a day (I don't eat yoghurt which is another Benecol option). No more than that recommended. Also more sprouted beans and seeds as my digestion does badly on unsprouted legumes (I have a 3-tier sprouter) - especially lentils, alfalfa and red clover which I read all lower chloresterol. We'll see . I can report back in a couple of months or so when I will ask for another blood test. best wishes, sam-sam32
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